Next year, early January 2012, it will be 20 years ago that I stopped eating meat. I started out as a pescatarian but as time progressed, fish just seemed to become a replacement for meat. That was not what I had intended. So I banned seafood from my diet as well, and became a lacto-ovo vegetarian: eating no animal products except dairy, eggs and honey.

Now I’m ready for the next step.

I’ve made a resolution to eat much fewer animal products in 2011.

I didn’t particularly start out being a vegetarian just because of animal welfare; that was part of my motivation along with environmental issues and the belief a meat-free diet is healthier. But I now really hate the thought that animals are being harmed and killed to produce cheese, milk and yes, even eggs. That I buy organic produce does not change that fact.

So where to begin?

First I need to get the vegan lifestyle more into my system; have loads of animal-free products, recipes and alternatives at hand. I can only accomplish that by committing 100%! So let me introduce my personal 10 day vegan pilot: ExtraVeganza!

Cool logo huh? A HUGE ‘THANK YOU’ to variomatic who created it for me! :))

ExtraVeganza

I’m going to kick-off Gnoe’s vegan adventures on January 27th by taking part in Happie Herbi’s Eat Good, Feel Good workshop.

I hope to blog about my findings each day for the whole 10 day period (Thursday January 28th-Sunday February 5th). Think Julie & Julia, but in a vegan version. ;)

I want to log my menus for future reference but you can also expect recipes, product reviews and my thoughts on cookbooks or recipe websites. As time allows, anyway ;)

I plan to visit the recently opened Vegetarische Slager (‘Vegetarian Butcher’) in The Hague, compare different vegan alternatives like seitan (‘Buddhist meat’), tempeh, different kinds of tofu and possible ready-cooked ‘meat replacers’. Most shop-bought vegetarian burgers contain either egg or milk-derived proteins though.

One evening Mr Gnoe and I will be eating out at Kitchen Punx in ACU, the only (!) vegan eatery in my not-so-small hometown.

Of course I’ll make sure that my diet is healthy, supplementing B12. If it’s not too much of a hassle I’ll keep track of my nutritional intake in the ‘nutrition gauge’ (Eetmeter) on the Voedingscentrum website. This Nutrition Centre is funded by our Ministry of Health and considered a reliable source of information.

But to begin with I need to put together an ExtraVeganza pilot tab in my Netvibes page so I’ll have all vegan resources in one spot — I might just share the page when I’m done!

Wow — I’ll be following your experiment. We aren’t vegetarian but we do not eat meat every day by any means. We are, however, dedicated to organic and eat hormone-free, locally raised (by people we know personally) animal products almost exclusively. I am always interested in learning more about healthy eating and incorporating more vegetarian and vegan dishes into our diet.

Congratulations and WOW… I can’t wait to read all about your adventures in vegan cooking.

I have been a vegetarian most of my life, in fact I remember hating meat as a little girl and having to sit at the dinner table. I would sit there all night as long as I didn’t have to eat chicken, steak or fish.

I am very close to vegan but I do use a splash of milk in my coffee. I love cheese but do not keep it in the house (I could eat all of it in a day).

Last night I made this recipe for dinner – it is the best dish I have made in months. I can’t wait to have it for lunch! Try it (and it’s vegan):

I must admit I enjoy vegetarian food and often think about becoming vegetarian – I don’t eat a lot of meat I love spicey redkidney beans mashed with a tin of tomatoes and spices – I could live on it! lol! Nice to meet you, I have just joined this food meme

What a great idea (and name)!! I am looking forward to reading your experiences along the way :) I once ate at ACU, a long time ago, their food is good! I applaud you for transitioning to a more vegan than lacto-ovo vegetarian lifestyle, knowing it is not easy.
I once tracked my food intake progress via Eetmeter and I wasn’t very impressed: it’s made for omni’s, so don’t take it too seriously (also: it’s very hard to get all the necessary nutrients on one day or even two days. Try to evaluate over a week, that is more realistic. There’s a thread on the VT forum btw!)

Our family is not vegetarian either but my oldest daughter and I do eat much less meat than the rest of our family. We try to get organic and locally raised eggs and meat whenever possible from home farms too. I am very interested in finding more recipes with less meat to entice the rest of my family to follow our lead.

@Margot: maybe I’ll even have something to post in the Foodie’s Reading Challenge?! :)

@Denise: beans mashed with tomatoes… that sounds interesting! LOL Welcome to the Weekend Cooking meme — will check out you post in a minute!

@Chinoiseries: you’re right about ‘Eetmeter’ but in effect it just ‘counts’ nutritional value of the products you register, right? Maybe the problem lies in the fact that not all vegetarian alternatives are available in the database?

@caite: I know how you feel… I have that with cheese & milk! ;) But I’m going to try anyway!

@Patti: that’s exactly what I hope to achieve as well, collecting the very best recipes!

This is very exciting even if I am reading it a week later. My son is vegetarian but my hubby and daughter are very much meatatarians. they want meat all the time. I’m stuck in the middle. I’ll be looking forward to your comments.